Dear colleagues,
If you are a clinician of any denomination, please answer this 1 question
survey:
1. What proportion <a> of patients <b> who present to your clinical service
<c> for diagnostic evaluation <d> have active clinical problems <e> for
which disease probability evidence <f> exists that might inform your
differential diagnosis <g>?
Please email your responses (proportion and brief phrase describing your
clinical practice) to me at: [log in to unmask]
Please DO NOT reply to the EBH list. I will compile any responses and
summarize to the list.
Working definitions, corresponding to letters above in '< >':
a. Report in probability, percentage or fractions, as you see fit.
b. You may substitute "clients" or other terms, if you choose.
c. Please record type of service (e.g. primary care, hospital medicine, etc)
d. I.e., you have to help figure out what is the matter.
e. An 'active clinical problem' can be any individual symptom, a group of
symptoms, a cluster of symptoms and signs, a clinical syndrome or other
health condition that concerns the patient, of biologic, psychologic, or
sociologic dimension. Examples include: acute back pain, worsened anxiety,
chronic homelessness.
f. Published reports in which patients with a defined clinical problem were
gathered, a diagnostic work-up was undertaken and reported, and where the
frequency of underlying diseases was reported.
g. We use the phrase 'differential diagnosis' in 2 ways: In general,
differential diagnosis represents the means by which the clinician considers
possible disorders before reaching the final diagnosis. For a particular
patient, the differential diagnosis represents the results of using these
methods (usually in the form of a short list, containing the leading
hypothesis and a few alternatives).
Thank you very much in advance for your responses, and for your forbearance.
Cheers!
WSR
W. Scott Richardson, M.D.
Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital *******************
7400 Merton Minter Blvd. Lightning:
San Antonio, TX 78284 in the crack of a boulder
T: (210) 617-5314 violets
F: (210) 567-4423 A. Rotella
Email: [log in to unmask] *******************
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